DHL Group is preparing a major expansion across Central and Eastern Europe as the logistics company positions itself for continued growth in manufacturing, trade and regional distribution.

The company plans to invest more than €400 million through 2030, with funding directed toward logistics infrastructure, transportation networks and technology-enabled supply chain services across the region. The program will span several DHL businesses and is intended to increase capacity and international connectivity for companies operating across European and global markets.

DHL has identified Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Romania as particularly important markets under its Strategy 2030. The company says these countries are benefiting from what it describes as geographic tailwinds, including their growing roles in European manufacturing and distribution and greater interest in locating production and supply chains closer to European customers.

The investment program will cover several parts of DHL Group's logistics network rather than a single project or business division.

DHL said it plans to expand warehousing infrastructure, contract logistics capacity, supply chain control towers, business-to-business transportation networks, international express services and freight capabilities.

The more than €400 million figure represents planned investment across Central and Eastern Europe through 2030. DHL has not disclosed a complete country-by-country allocation of that spending or a full list of every project that will receive funding. As a result, the figure should be viewed as a regional multi-year investment commitment rather than the cost of one logistics facility.

The expansion also extends across several DHL divisions, reflecting the company's presence in activities ranging from express delivery and freight forwarding to warehousing and contract logistics.

Poland is expected to play a particularly prominent role in DHL's plans.

DHL has operated in the country for 35 years and employs more than 10,000 people there, making Poland one of the group's ten largest markets worldwide by employment. The company has already made substantial investments in Polish logistics infrastructure.

In 2024, DHL opened a €180 million International Logistics Centre in Poznań. The facility supports multiple DHL operations, including DHL Freight, DHL eCommerce, and Post & Parcel Germany, while connecting Poland with other European and international markets.

That €180 million investment predates the newly announced regional program and should therefore not be treated as part of the more than €400 million DHL plans to invest through 2030 unless the company states otherwise.

DHL has also announced plans for a new DHL Express air express terminal in Katowice. Additional investments are planned across warehousing and distribution networks operated by DHL Supply Chain, DHL Freight, DHL eCommerce and DHL Global Forwarding.

DHL announced the investment program alongside new findings from the DHL Globalization Tracker, a research project commissioned by DHL and authored by Steven A. Altman and Caroline R. Bastian of New York University's Stern School of Business.

The October 2026 edition draws on more than 30 million data points from more than 25 public, private and academic sources. It tracks capital, international flows of trade, information and people. The report's trade forecasts combine projections from the International Monetary Fund, Economist Intelligence Unit, Oxford Economics and S&P Global Market Intelligence.

According to DHL's analysis, Poland's goods trade outpaced both global and EU trade growth between 2016 and 2025, growing 2.1 times faster than the global rate and 2.7 times faster than the EU rate.

Looking forward, the Tracker forecasts that Poland's goods trade will grow 28% faster than world trade and 91% faster than EU trade between 2026 and 2029.

These comparisons describe relative rates of trade growth. A forecast that Poland's trade will grow 28% faster than world trade does not mean its trade will increase by 28 percentage points more than global trade.

The forecasts are projections rather than reported results and may change as economic conditions, trade policies and other factors evolve.

DHL's investment plans reflect broader changes in how companies organize production and distribution.

Manufacturers and retailers have spent recent years reassessing where goods are produced, stored and transported. DHL sees Central and Eastern Europe as increasingly important for companies seeking manufacturing and distribution locations with access to the wider European market.

The company's Strategy 2030 specifically identifies Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Romania as markets positioned to benefit from these changes. DHL has highlighted nearshoring as one factor that could support the region, particularly when overseas businesses want production or inventory located closer to European customers.

Romania is already becoming a larger part of DHL Supply Chain's regional network. In 2026, DHL expanded its partnership with retailer Pepco, adding operations in Romania as part of a broader contract logistics relationship spanning several Central and Eastern European markets.

The regional expansion also comes as DHL's latest research points to a stronger global trade outlook.

The October 2026 DHL Globalization Tracker forecasts global goods trade to expand by an average of 3.4% per year through 2029, compared with average annual growth of 2.7% during the previous decade. The forecast is a composite based on projections from several independent economic research providers rather than DHL's own sales or shipment volumes.

The Tracker also found that global goods trade grew faster during the first half of 2026 than in any half-year since 2011 except for the exceptional rebound following the pandemic-related contraction. DHL and the report's authors identified investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, including demand for semiconductors and data-transmission equipment, as an important contributor to recent trade growth.

Those global figures provide context for DHL's investment strategy, but they are not measures of DHL's own financial performance or shipment growth.

DHL's planned investment represents a broad effort to expand capacity across a part of Europe that the company expects to become increasingly important to international supply chains.

Rather than concentrating the spending on a single warehouse or transport hub, DHL is spreading the program across warehousing, freight, express delivery, transportation technology and supply chain management capabilities.

Poland will remain a central market, supported by existing infrastructure and relatively strong projected trade growth, while Czechia, Hungary and Romania form part of DHL's wider regional growth strategy.

With more than €400 million planned through 2030, the program gives DHL a larger physical and technological footprint across Central and Eastern Europe as businesses rethink how they connect manufacturing, inventory and customers across the continent.